Where Did Kick Scooters Come From?

A Brief History of Scooters
It’s crazy to think how much kick scooters have changed in the past 100 years. The first kick scooter literally was a small piece of wood attached to roller skate wheels. These kids—yep, youngins created kick scooters!—hooked wood onto a handlebar and, voila!, a new, fun way of getting around was born.

Scooters are awesome, but fell behind the bicycle, rollerskate, and skateboard craze. Kids were looking for different ways to get around, and more quickly, which explains why bicycles were so popular. Scooter diehards tweaked the designs here and there, and it wasn’t until 1990 that Wim Ouboter jumped in and revamped the way scooters looked and functioned. Ouboter’s sister had a really hard time riding a bike because one of her legs was shorter than the other, and he wanted to create something special and practical for her.

Ouboter realized wooden scooters didn’t really hold up to the weather, so he kept the design but made them a bit sturdier. He used smaller wheels, too, and his design paved the way for new, more modern scooters. To combat that clunky noise and improve durability, designers started using aluminum to build scooters. This was great for riders in two ways: it improved safety (riders could hear traffic!) and the way you looked while you rode (no more clunky-ness!).